Effective Treatment for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia

From Fatigued to Fantastic!: A Proven Program to Regain Vibrant Health, Based on a New Scientific Study Showing Effective Treatment for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
by Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.

From Fatigued to Fantastic! offers the most effective treatment plan to help people recover from these disorders, and will coincide with the publication of a groundbreaking study in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome announcing the author's findings to the medical community.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFIDS) and fibromyalgia are illnesses characterized by severe long-term fatigue, achiness, "brain fog," and recurrent infections, among other symptoms. The conditions are frequently misdiagnosed and patients often receive confusing and misleading information from health practitioners.

Dr. Teitelbaum, one of the country's leading experts on CFIDS and fibromyalgia, has experienced and overcome these illnesses himself. In this revised edition of his landmark book, he examines the possible causes of the disorders and provides instructions for patients on how to eliminate them, using both natural and pharmacological methods. He offers compelling evidence that these disorders can be treated effectively, and provides the latest scientific research and cutting-edge discoveries about these diseases as well as sound, compassionate advice on dealing with them.

A curious thing happened during the rigorous process I went through to become a physician. By the time I completed my formal training, I presumed that if an important treatment existed for an illness, I had been taught about it. I understood that physicians need to keep reading to stay abreast of new information. But I knew that if someone claimed he or she could effectively treat a nontreatable disease, that person was a quack. If such a treatment existed, I would surely have been taught about it.

I was wrong.

Dr. Werner Barth, my rheumatology instructor, taught me many things. The most important thing he taught me, though, was to spend an hour a day reading the scientific literature. This has gotten me into all kinds of trouble.

When I first started my practice, patients would ask me if I knew about certain herbal or nutritional treatments for illnesses. One patient asked me if I had ever heard about using vitamin B₆ for carpal tunnel syndrome. "That's nonsense," I answered. "If B₆ cures carpal tunnel syndrome, don't you think I would have been taught to use that instead of to operate on people's wrists?" I said that I would look into it, however.

Joyce Miller, the Anne Arundel Medical Center librarian, has always been happy to obtain studies for me (and she has gotten many thousands over the years). When she did a literature search for vitamin B₆ and carpal tunnel syndrome, she found a number of studies showing that 250 milligrams of B₆ per day for three months, combined with wrist splints, often cures carpal tunnel syndrome. I thought that was curious. Over the months, this scene was played out again and again. I decided to keep notes on these rare "pearls" in a thirty-page spiral notebook. My notes are now over a thousand pages long.

After a while, I began to comprehend that, indeed, my professors had not taught me everything in medical school. As I continued my research, I realized that although our modern allopathic medical system might be the best in the world, it has its weaknesses. These days, it is rare (albeit wonderful) for a major medical development to come out of a doctor's office instead of a research center. This stems from a critical drawback in our economic system (and all systems have their drawbacks). In our current system, a treatment must be very profitable to be promoted. Experts estimate that it costs about $400,000,000 to develop a single new treatment and to get it through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process. Unless a medication or supplement is put through the FDA approval process, its manufacturer is banned from making any medical claims for the product. However, if a product is inexpensive and nonpatentable, its manufacturer will most likely not want to pay $400,000,000 to put it through the FDA process.

Vitamin B₆ used for carpal tunnel syndrome is an excellent example. Treating carpal tunnel syndrome with B₆ costs about nine dollars per patient. Vitamin B₆ manufacturers would therefore find it impossible to recoup the cost of getting FDA approval for this treatment. Because of this, most patients instead spend between $2,000 and $4,000 to have surgery. This situation is the same for hundreds of other nonpatentable, effective, inexpensive, and relatively safe treatments. The FDA has even been fighting to make it illegal for stores that sell supplements to hand out copies of well-done scientific studies on the supplements!

The treatment approach that you will learn about in From Fatigued to Fantastic! is well grounded in the scientific literature. Dr. Janet Travell, professor emeritus of internal medicine at George Washington University Medical School, is considered the world's leading expert on muscle disorders. She served as White House physician for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and authored the eight-hundred-page bible on treating muscle disorders entitled Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. Although the research connecting fibromyalgia and myofascial (muscle) pain syndromes had not yet been done when she wrote her book, she investigated the perpetuating factors-that is, the conditions that keep the muscles from appropriately relaxing. In one chapter alone, she referenced 317 scientific studies that showed how important it is to treat these perpetuating factors. There is no lack of scientific basis for treatment, just a lack of awareness of the treatment, due to its relative inexpensiveness and nonpatentability.

Unfortunately, your doctor is likely to be unfamiliar with the research on effective treatment of myofascial pain and fibromyalgia. Your doctor may be hostile to the information presented in this book, considering it to be quackery because it was not covered in medical school. Or, your doctor may choose to disregard the information. On the other hand, your doctor might be open-minded (though reasonably skeptical) and will choose to explore the subject in more depth. If this last possibility is the case, the information and references in this book will give your doctor the scientific basis necessary to manage and optimize your treatment. Show your doctor Appendix A: For Physicians, which I wrote specifically for medical professionals, and Appendix B: Studies of Effective Treatment Modalities for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia, in which I present the results that my research partners and I obtained in our recent study. These will be helpful to your physician.

The book in general, however, is for you, the layperson suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. After giving an overview of the possible causes and patterns of chronic fatigue states in Chapter 1, I home in on the specifics. In Chapter 2, I discuss nutritional problems. In Chapter 3, I focus on hormonal problems. In Chapter 4, I cover immune-system problems and infections, and in Chapter 5, I discuss fibromyalgia. In Chapter 6, getting eight hours of sleep a night and in Chapter 7 how to make your pain go away. Chapters 8 and 9 will teach you about natural remedies. In Chapter 10, I address food allergies, sinus problems, Chiari malformation, and several other possible troublemakers. In Chapter 11, I hope to reassure you that you are not crazy, and that your symptoms are real. And in Chapter 12, I try to help you find a physician who will treat you as a whole person, addressing both the physical and psychospiritual issues inherent in illness. Several appendices offer additional or supporting information.

I think you will find the material presented in this book to be as exciting as my colleagues and I find it. Knowing how problematic brain fog can be, I have tried to keep the text concise and straightforward. However, if you finish the book and find yourself wishing for more information, check Appendix I: Recommended Reading, as well as the Bibliography. Between this book, my website (www.endfatigue.com), my reference sources, and the books and articles I recommend for further reading, you should find the bulk of your most pressing questions answered.

© June 2001, Avery Books, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc. Used with permission.

About the Author

Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum is a board-certified internist and leading researcher in the field of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. He has a specialized practice for CFIDS/fibromyalgia patients in Annapolis, Maryland.